Zero Limits - Watercolour on Paper

This work portrays Matt Morris, an Army veteran who has found purpose through storytelling. As the host of the Zero Limits podcast, Matt shares the voices of military personnel and first responders, preserving their experiences of service and resilience. The paintings are arranged to mimic the shape of a soundwave. Beginning with Matt at his microphone and flowing through the stories of some of those he has interviewed: DEA Operatives Steve Murphy and Javier F. pena Ep. 40, 2nd Commando Regiment Australian special forces officer Heston Russell Ep. 188, NSW Police detective Craig Semple Ep. 124, NSW police TOU and Australian federal police SRG Jason Semple Ep. 75, Navy clearance diver and shark attack survivor Paul De Gelder Ep. 6 and American Ranger Matt Eversmann Operation Gothic Serpent Ep. 128. The sequence closes with Matt himself on deployment, completing the wave with his own story. Together, the work reflects not only the lives he documents but also the way telling these stories has become his own enduring sense of purpose.

Matt’s journey into the military began with a spark that lit up during his final years of school. Like many young men, he’d always carried that interest, drawn to the idea of serving. The September 11 attacks in 2001 turned that spark into determination. By 2003 he was chasing a spot in the regular army. When positions weren’t available, he jumped into the reserves and soon found himself on exercise in Singapore, fully immersed in the world he had long wanted to be part of.
Within a year he had moved into full-time service, passing through Singleton and landing in 3RAR. He admits he didn’t fully understand what it meant to be a paratrooper when he signed up “you never really know until you’re playing the role” but he quickly took on the jump wings and the identity that came with them. His specialty became mortars, serving as a mortarman in support company. Deployments followed: Timor, Afghanistan, and all the challenges of life in an infantry battalion.
But like many soldiers, the transition out of the Defence Force hit hard. By his mid-20s, Matt was out. “You don’t understand the world at that age,” he reflects. “Technically your brain’s still developing. It’s drilled into you, virtually brainwashing. Then suddenly you’re out, and it’s gone.” The loss of tribe, routine, and identity left scars. He carried aggression with him, bouncing in nightclubs, struggling to adjust to civilian life, and facing the mental health battles so common among veterans.
Despite the struggles, Matt’s resilience showed. He moved into private contracting, working in Mexico, Iraq, and Afghanistan, chasing both income and purpose. Later, he built a successful security company, carving out stability while raising two children. But even then, he knew something was missing, the brotherhood, the tribe, the deeper sense of meaning.
That missing piece came in an unexpected form: a podcast. What began during COVID as “just editing while I was working” grew into Zero Limits Podcast, a platform where Matt sits down with veterans, police, and first responders to tell their stories. It struck a chord, quickly growing from fifty listeners a week to tens of thousands. Soldiers, cops, and everyday people reached out to him, some telling him the podcast had saved their lives. “That’s wild,” he says. “That’s the positive. Being a voice for people who can’t say things.”
For Matt, the podcast isn’t just a side project, it’s become his new service. Sharing stories of Aussie heroes, unfiltered and real, has given him purpose again. It’s also reshaped him personally. “It’s made me more forgiving, more understanding,” he reflects. “It’s proved to me that if you just put your mind to it, you can do it.”
When asked what message he’d leave for other veterans searching for life after service, Matt keeps it simple:
“Just do it. What’s the worst that can happen? You make yourself look like a fool. Who cares? Just do it.”
From mortars on deployment to microphones in the studio, Matt Morris has carried the same spirit